Ivy Leaves F18

FROM THE ARCHIVES
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BRINGING TOGETHER TWO SCHOOLS WITH
THE SAME NAME, SEPARATED BY AN OCEAN
{Part one in a series}
Starting in 1941, our school hosted girls from
war-torn England as part of a program
evacuating children from the dangers of the
German Blitz. In that first year, we had seven
students come to us from a few schools in
England. That number grew to thirteen
students the following year. While this program
closed with the end of World War II, our school
continued to have ties to schools in England.
By the end of the 1950s a pen-pal relationship
with “our sister school”, St. Mary’s Hall in
Brighton, England, had developed into a
student exchange program. For the next dozen
years individuals from our St. Mary’s Hall and
their St. Mary’s Hall crossed the Atlantic
Ocean to spend a year at each other’s
schools.
Here is the recollection of one of the students
who came to us from England, Patricia Dahl,
printed in the St. Mary’s Hall (Brighton)
publication, News Letter & School Magazine,
No. 62, December 1960. Patricia began her
time here in the U.S. staying with the Collins
family, including Alice Collins Fisk ’61.
“On September 2nd, 1959, the liner “Nieuw
Amsterdam” cruised slowly up the Hudson
River and into New York Harbour. What an
awe-inspiring and breath-taking sight it was—
the Manhattan skyline against a slowly
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lightening dawn sky! "This is New York," I said
to myself over and over again, “and I am really
here!” Even at that point, I found it hard to
realize where I was!
“After standing in long queues for three tedious
hours (and the terrible New York humidity did
not ease matters!), I eventually passed through
the Immigration and Customs enclosures and
met the Headmistress, Mrs. Slater, Mrs.
Collins and Alice, with whom I was first
staying, and Hedl Decker, my second host.
After lunch, we drove to my new “home” along
the New Jersey Turnpike—one of the many
wonderful fast and straight American roads.
“There was just over a week before school
started, and I settled down quickly, finding the
Collins charming people, as were Colonel and
Mrs. Decker and Hedl, with whom I lived for
the last four months of the year. On the first
day at school, I found the Burlington St. Mary’s
Hall very similar to our St. Mary’s Hall.
Burlington was founded one year after ours, in
1837, with the style of the buildings very alike.
“Let me describe to you a typical school day.
Unlike most English schools, American
schools have school buses (for those who do
not drive to school as a good many do), and
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one of the three St. Mary’s buses picked up
Alice and me at 7:45. The school has its own
Episcopal Chapel—the Episcopal Church
being the daughter church of the Church of
England, and every morning we would have a
shortened service of Morning Prayer,
conducted by the school Chaplain, Father
Conklin, or by Mrs. Slater, or by Miss Taylor,
the Dean of Girls, or, as on Fridays, by one of
the Senior girls, and I myself conducted the
service on one occasion.
Three lessons were held in the morning, each
being fifty minutes long. My first was English,
which included American Literature, the
second, U.S. History, then Games, Scripture or
Health, according to which day of the week it
was. Lunch was much less formal than it is
here. Americans eat their main meal in the
evening, so have just a snack at midday. One
could either have school lunches or bring them
from home, and lunch was usually a sandwich
—and not a dainty tea-sandwich by any means
—or a famous American hamburger with ice
cream to follow.
“Afternoon school for me began with Study
Hall (a free period). Then I had French and
History of Art, and school finished at 3:30 and,
on Fridays, at 2:45. This timetable was the
same every day, and that is a big difference
IVY LEAVES THE MAGAZINE OF DOANE ACADEMY 14